I was chatting with a mate at the pub last Tuesday when he claimed the Kentucky Derby must be the biggest horse race globally. Sounded fishy to me, so I decided to dig into it properly.
Starting point: what even counts as “biggest”?
Grabbed my laptop and opened multiple browser tabs. First question: biggest by what? Prize money? Attendance? History? Media coverage? Had to check all angles.
Jotted down three main contenders people always fight about:
- The Grand National at Aintree
- The Kentucky Derby in the US
- The Dubai World Cup
Figured I’d compare them head-to-head using public stats.
Prize money shocker
Typed prize purse comparisons into search engines. Almost spit out my coffee when I saw Dubai World Cup’s $12 million total purse. Double checked official racing sites to confirm – yep, Kentucky Derby’s $3 million pot looks tiny next to that. Made a spreadsheet tracking purses back to 2010. Dubai’s been crushing this category for years.
Counting butts in seats
Attendance was trickier. Dug through news reports about last year’s events:
- Kentucky Derby: 150,000 spectators crammed into Churchill Downs
- Dubai: Official logs showed 60,000 maximum capacity
- Grand National: Confetti-covered articles claimed 70,000 screaming Brits
Kentucky wins the crowd size battle by a mile. Who knew mint juleps attracted such mobs?
History hunting headaches
Then tried measuring “bigness” by historical impact. Oh boy, that opened Pandora’s box. Found arguments everywhere:
- Grand National started in 1839 with crazy long courses and dangerous jumps
- Kentucky Derby began 1875 calling itself “the fastest two minutes in sports”
- Dubai only launched in 1996 but splashes insane oil money everywhere
Ended up making color-coded timelines for each race. Nearly threw my keyboard when sources contradicted each other about derby fatalities vs safety records.
The social media curveball
Right when I thought Kentucky won by history + attendance, checked Twitter and Instagram engagement. Dubai’s gold trophy photos exploded with double the likes of Kentucky Derby posts. Even Arab royals posting horse selfies. Completely changed my view of global reach.
My messy conclusion
So here’s the frustrating truth: depends how you measure it. Final spreadsheet showed:
- Dubai = King of cash
- Kentucky = Attendance champ
- Grand National = Legacy leader
Emailed my pub mate the chaotic spreadsheet. He replied: “So they’re all the biggest depending on what we’re counting?” Exactly. Sometimes reality doesn’t fit in tidy boxes. The end.
